KIU Main Campus - A study carried out by scientists at Chinese University and China Centre for Disease Control revealed a new type of swine flu that can spark off a new pandemic in the future.

According to the study released on Monday by the US Science Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the G4 virus commonly in pigs is genetically descended from the H1N1 swine flu that caused a pandemic in 2009.

From 2011 to 2018, researchers from different institutions collected more than 30,000 nasal swab samples from pigs slaughterhouses across 10 Chinese provinces which found out 179 swine influenza viruses.

Tests found out that the G4 has the potential to infect humans by binding to our cells and receptors and can replicate quickly inside our airwaves. The survey also found out that 10% of swine workers on pig farms and 4.4% of the general population have already been exposed to the virus.

Though the virus is capable of infecting humans, there is no imminent risk of a new pandemic, Carl Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington confirmed in a tweet.

Symptoms of Swine Flu in humans include fever, lack of appetite, vomiting and diarrhoea, runny nose, coughing, and a sore throat.

This has come in a time when the world is still fighting the deadly Coronavirus which has infected more than 10,117,687 people and killed more than 502,278 people worldwide.